The Rosy Wealth of June

The Rosy Wealth of June is Henri Fantin-Latour’s painting that adorns the wall of National Gallery in London. In this painting the artist has painted late summer blooms. The painting’s title was probably chosen to appeal to English patrons who outnumbered the ones in his own country during his lifetime. The sharpness in floral and still life paintings of Fantin matches that of Dutch and Flemish old masters.

The Rosy Wealth of June

Here is my ode to the great master. The crystal vase, the bunch of flowers and leaves, all presented a challenge to amateur artist like me. One by one, I started tackling the issues. The flowers required highlights day after day as the layers of oil paint dried. The vase had to depict the shadows and light at various places along with stems of the flowers it holds.

The dark green foliage gives depth to the painting. Many mixes of blues and yellows were used to create various shade of green. Both cadmium and lemon yellow were used along with a tinge of blue and lots of white in yellow roses. The red ones have crimson lake with blue for the darkest tone, then a mix of cadmium red and crimson lake followed by little yellow and white with red for the highlights.